


Shots fired

by Rosekb



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23470822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosekb/pseuds/Rosekb
Summary: Being a detective is dangerous work, and having a kid is sometimes more dangerous. When Jake and Amy have their two kids they have to deal with the reality that is the danger of working at the 99.
Relationships: Jake Peralta & Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	1. The Event

Jake Peralta sat at his desk, tapping aimlessly at the keyboard. He had been looking for a file on his computer, but it had been a moment since he had remembered what it was that he was looking for. He kept looking down at his phone, sitting face-up on his desk. He half expected a call from the daycare, but he can't imagine why. His son, Levi, had been attending that daycare since he was six months old, just about three and a half years. Today, however, was a bit odd because today was Amy's first day back at the precinct since their youngest child, Lorelei, had been born. Well, it was her first full day back. Usually, the kids would stay with their grandma Karen, lovingly known as Nana, but today she was too busy and therefore the kids needed to be left at daycare and it was little Lorelei's first day. The daycare had always been fantastic, and had all sorts of activities for the kids to learn and play, and a nap area that was constantly monitored. There was nothing to worry about.

  
Jake finally stumbled across the file he had been looking for and sent a quick and incoherent email to Captain Holt. Some things never do change. Once he was finished with that he stood up and walked over to the coffee pot, pouring himself a sickeningly sweet cup of half coffee half sugar. It felt like he never slept much anymore, especially because Amy had been pumping at home so that they could wean the baby off of milk and make it more convenient for Jake to feed her. Of course Jake loved helping his wife, and loved the connection of feeding his baby, but she was getting bigger and bigger and eating for longer periods of time. On top of this, she had made her very own schedule, without a care in the world for her parent's schedule. Every night at 2am was breakfast, and then the baby would sleep throughout the morning.

  
Levi had been much easier, Jake thought as he looked at the pictures sitting on his desk. There was one of him and Amy, years ago smiling bright into the camera. Then there was one of Amy holding little Levi a few hours after he had been born, swaddled in a little yellow blanket. Then there was the newest one, depicting an almost four-year-old Levi holding a newborn Lorelei while sitting on their father's lap just hours after arriving home from the hospital.

  
Jake felt his phone buzzing on the table, and seeing Amy's contact, rushed to answer it.

  
"Jake?" she said the moment he picked it up.

  
"What's wrong Ames?"

  
"I don't think I've ever said this before, but can we leave early? I miss the kids," It was like she had just read his mind. She was still talking, still trying to explain that she had finished her work and they could come in early the next day, but Jake was already grabbing his things and rushing to the elevator. It was only a bit early, Jake had left earlier than this several times before (and usually with less reason) but today was different. He missed his kids, and he knew that Terry would respect and understand, if he noticed Jake's absence.

  
\---

  
The daycare was bustling still, parents weren't there to pick up their kids quite yet, which meant that there was a space right in front of the building for Jake to maneuver into so they could run inside to grab the kids. Upon their entering, Levi looked up and immediately right back down after seeing his parents near the door. This was not new, Jake knew that Levi loved playing with his friends and could understand where he was coming from. Despite this, Jake approached him, ruffling his hair.

  
"What are you building?" he asked, looking down at Levi's Legos.

  
"Sheep,"

  
"That's pretty cool dude, ready to say bye to your friends? You get to come back tomorrow," He nudged Levi. Levi smiled and nodded.

  
"Bye guys! Tomorrow we can build something huge!" Levi, known for looking on the bright side of things, stood up and went to grab his fathers hand, when Jake surprised him by grabbing the boy around the waist and carrying him out of the daycare, upside-down while the boy, his mother, and Jake laughed. Little Lori was snug in her carseat, awake and looking at her family, but in less of a good mood than the rest of the group. It was almost dinner time, and Jake knew that after dinner he would be able to crack her up until she fell asleep.

  
\---

  
Putting the kids to bed was fairly easy that night. Levi had told them all about the games he got to play that day (Dodgeball!) and Lorelei had fallen asleep soon after eating, so it was a rare night where the tired parents could finally relax together. They chose to clean up and relax in bed, with Amy falling asleep sooner than Jake. By 9:30, everyone was asleep.

  
\---

  
Dropping Levi off was surprisingly hard that morning. Amy had taken their other car to work early ("I left early yesterday, I should go in early today") she had said, kissing her family's foreheads and waving good-bye. That meant that Jake was on champagne color sedan duty, aka Drop-off. For a kid who didn't want to leave the daycare the day before, he sure didn't want to be left there now.

  
"Hey buddy, I need you to do me a big favor," Jake finally said after handing Lorelei off to the staff member and crouching in front of his son, "Can you build something huge?"

  
The little boy, almost identical to his father save for slightly darker features, nodded. "Can you come get us early?" He asked.

  
"How about we go get ice cream tonight? I'm sure I can convince mommy," Jake smiled at his son's eager nod, then watched as his son ran to play with his friends at the Lego table.

  
\---

  
Jake ran in just a few minutes before the briefing and found a seat next to Rosa.

  
"You figure out your case yet, Peralta?" her feet were kicked up on the desk in front of her.

  
"I'm close. It looks like so many of the other cases that this guy was involved in- Ledbecker. And he was recently let out of prison for good behavior."

  
"Bet thats your guy" she nodded, which on her looked more like a slight incline of her head.

  
The briefing ended fairly quickly, and the detectives got back to their desks. Charles headed to Jake's desk.

  
"Got the address for Ledbecker this morning, ready to go in five?" Charles asked. Jake nodded, turning to review the guy's history. Theft, robbery, but nothing too violent other than some fights in prison. As far as criminals go, he was a real stand-up kind of guy.

  
Jake and Boyle headed out in an unmarked patrol car, heading through the traffic. Had Jake thought of it before, he would have stopped by Amy's desk to kiss her forehead before going out, or he would have thrown on a vest, or done something smart. This just seemed routine, he would arrive at the perp's mother's house, the last place the perp was known to reside, and knock on the door. A fragile old lady would answer, and state she hadn't seen her son in days.

  
He did not expect for a young guy, younger then the perp, to answer the door.

  
"I'm a detective with the NYPD. Is there a James Ledbecker here?" Charles said, eyeing the man. Charles was a step closer to the door than Jake, which allowed Jake to see curtains draw closed from the corner of his eye.

  
"Nah, its just me and my chick here," The young guy said.

  
"Then you wouldn't mind us looking around? Is it your chick that closed the curtains over there?" Jake eyed the man.

  
"Man you don't have a warrant" The guy smirked, while Charles fished something out of his back pocket.

  
"Yeah, we do," He handed the man the warrant, and the two detectives pushed past him into the house. Charles took the stairs, Jake checking the main floor. As he approached the kitchen he watched as the screen door slammed shut, while their perp made a run for it.

  
Jake began running to follow him, radioing to Charles, but once he passed through the doorway he heard a crack, then the sound of glass shattering, then he was on the ground and the world was blurry. So yeah, Ledbecker was not known for being a fighter, but it turns out Ledbecker didn't even need to, not with his friend close behind him with nothing to lose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so um yeah.. leave me notes and such. I work in the healthcare industry, so I'm writing this to keep myself busy when I'm not at work. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, so encourage me to post my new chapter!


	2. Charles Boyle's sins

Two shots fired below him before Charles Boyle even knew what was happening. He ran down the stairs, watching the man who’d answered the door run from the house while dropping his gun. Charles went to follow him, but did a double-take when he saw a crumpled figure on the ground.

His heart began to race faster than before as his feet carried him to his friend. “Officer down, I need an ambulance,” Charles radioed while turning his friend over.

Jake was gasping for air, Charles could see blood seeping through his pant leg, but saw nothing else abnormal.

“Jake? Hey, buddy, talk to me,” He called, kneeling over his gasping friend. Jake’s eyes were watery, and his eyes were closing slowly. Charles knew he needed to reassess, he had missed something the first time he had approached Jake.

Looking down there was a wound on his leg, check. Blood seeped from the area, and Charles fished the pocket knife out of Jake’s jeans (a good friend knows what his buddy keeps in his pocket) and began cutting the pant leg off above the wound. The wound had torn into Jake’s calf, making it hard to hold pressure. As he held his jacket to Jake’s leg he could hear his friend whimpering in pain.

In movies, the ambulance always came quickly. In real life, it was coming painfully slowly.

Charles continued his sweep over Jake’s body, nothing noticeable on his other leg, his abdomen was clear, his arms were dirty but contained no traces of blood. His friend’s face was dirty and held tracks from tears, but there was no sign of injury. Maybe he had hit his head on his way down?

Charles knew he had to turn Jake over to get one more look at his back, that’s where the shots had been aimed. Taking a deep breath, he rolled his friend over, and his body ran cold. 

\---

Jake had felt lots of types of pain. Being a cop, and being an impulsive one at that, he had his fair share of bad injuries. He’d even been shot before, so the pain shouldn’t have been too surprising, but his leg was throbbing and no matter how hard he tried to push himself up from the dirt his body did not want to cooperate.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. He could only feel his heart beating out of his chest and a throbbing pain coming from his leg.

Suddenly, his world began to light up and he could see a figure above him. He could almost make out the figure above him, it was blurry, but he knew that panic anywhere. The figure’s mouth was open, talking, but no sound was coming out.

Come to think of it, he was getting pretty tired of holding his eyes open, he would just shut them for a moment, then when he opened them again his eyes and ears would be working again.

\---

“No. No no no no no!” Charles could taste blood, and maybe a bit of bile. Sirens were finally in the distance, but they were still so far away. They hadn’t saved him from his own stupidity.

When you’re in emergency response training you learn how to take care of someone who is injured. As a beat cop, Charles had pulled people from cars after accidents, he had performed CPR countless times, he had stopped fights and held crying spouses, telling them that their partner was in the hospital, or never even made it that far.

Charles had seen some bad things. But seeing a bullet-hole just to the side of his best friend’s spine made every part of him feel rotten. Sure, all cops make mistakes. But they certainly don’t make those mistakes when it’s their best friend involved. Spinal mistakes were rarely reversible.

Their best friend who had made him the godfather of his daughter, who asked him questions about raising a son, who laughed with him and who loved his family more than anything.

Voices called out, searching for them. The ambulance was here, he could see the lights on the other side of the house. “Over here! In the back!” He shouted. The end of his sentence was muffled. As the EMTs strapped his best friend to a backboard, he noticed more officers had arrived. A couple uniformed officers. His blood ran cold again.

They weren’t just uniformed officers. They were a couple of Amy’s uniformed officers. And if they knew, then what did Amy know? Did someone call her? Would he have to face her? He knew if he had to stand in front of her he would melt. Should would hate him, and he would deserve it. His friend would hate him, and he would deserve it.

“Boyle,” he turned, looking at the grass. “Hey, what happened here? Are you hurt?” It was Terry. Good, strong, loving Terry. Holding his shoulders and pulling Charles into a tight hug. “Hey man, let’s go get this taken care of.” He pulled Charles along toward his car.

“The car,” Charles pointed at the car that him and Jake had driven to the scene in.

“Leave the keys here, someone else will bring it back and get it checked in. Let’s get you someone else,”

The ambulance had already left. Charles remembered little bits and pieces of Jake being pulled into the ambulance, but he had never seen the ambulance leave.

“Amy?” Tears began flowing again.

“Holt and Amy are headed to the hospital. They’ll meet the ambulance there. He’s in good hands- Sharron knows some of the staff there...” and Terry kept on talking, kept on talking about whoever it was that was going to take care of Jake. How good the nurses were and the doctors and how they would do everything they could.

It was almost funny. Charles, who usually cared so much about everyone else, had no room for fear. He was convinced Jake would wake up, but guilt still riddled his entire body. If Jake woke up, but couldn’t stand on his feet, he would never live with himself. He would be the reason, the one who hurt Jake. Charles couldn’t breathe anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to leave on a cliffhanger, but I think I'll be updating shortly.
> 
> Question: should I continue to follow from Charles' POV as well as Amy and Jake? (and possibly others?)


	3. Amy Santiago

Amy should be well on her way to the daycare by now. She should have swapped keys with her husband, left work, and grabbed the kids before heading home. Instead, she was riding passenger on her way to the hospital. Every minute felt longer, and she snapped at Captain Holt more than once for his perfect driving, yelling at him to go faster, to take a better route, to do anything so that they could get to the hospital to see Jake.  
  
Fears ran through her mind, she knew very little about what was happening. She had heard the request for an ambulance on the radio, but hadn’t recognized Charles Boyle’s voice as the one calling it out, she had just continued as usual. They were cops, injuries happened and ambulances were called several times a week for officers and civilians. Nothing about that call was abnormal until Holt appeared at her desk, interrupting her work.  
  
She remembers her ears ringing while Holt told her what was going on, remembers watching Terry run toward his car and Rosa begin commanding the uniformed officers. She was steered into Holt’s personal car, and could not remember if she had ever been in it. She tried to focus on that, tried to remember the small intricacies that was her relationship with Holt but all that she could focus on was the buzzing sound in her ears.  
  
When they arrived at the hospital she practically sprinted up the steps with Holt on her heels. Running to the nurse’s station she demanded to know where Jake was, what was going on. But the nurse looked at her with confusion.  
  
“Officer, we cannot give you information until the patient wakes” she smiled, apologetically.  
  
Amy’s ears burned. She was both angry and very sorry for being angry at the nurse, “He’s my husband,” she managed to choke out, before tears started to fall.  
  
Amy Santiago was not cold-hearted. She was civil, smart, and determined. She grew up with brothers, and was dedicated to becoming strong in the face of uncertainty. Her lack of crying was not due to coldness, it was due to steely determinism that was used as a coping skill. But her coping skill was crumpled, and tears were falling now for the first time since her daughter was born.  
  
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I’ll go check for an update,” and just like that the nurse was gone.  
  
\----  
  
Amy wanted to crumple on the floor. She had already been in the hospital for a few hours. Captain Holt, Charles, and Rosa were all sitting in a room with her. Karen and Roger had run to grab coffee. Terry was out picking up Lorelei and Levi and dropping them off with Sharon so he could return to the hospital to wait.  
The room was painfully quiet. Amy had been crying on and off since arriving, while Charles had been stifling a sob since he had arrived from the precinct. Even Rosa hid her eyes behind her hair at one point and Amy had to wonder if she was also crying.  
  
No news is good news, Roger had kept saying. Roger shut up when Amy threw a magazine at him.  
  
Amy should have been happy to be in a room full of the people that she and Jake loved, but she wanted nothing more than to be with him. She wanted to see him, even if he was in the middle of surgery and even if he looked terrible right now she wanted to know that he was not something she had imagined.  
  
\----  
  
As hour five arrived parts of the squad split up in search of food. Holt had left to go do some paperwork, and he had taken Terry with him. Karen was the only person left in the room, sitting on the floor leaning against a chair, looking at the ceiling.  
  
Amy could appreciate Karen. She had always had a sort of fondness for her. She was the one other person who she knew loved Jake unconditionally, and although her love was different than Karen’s she knew that if Jake did not recover from this she would not be the only person whose life was going to be torn to pieces.  
  
When Amy closed her eyes she could see, on the mantel of Jake’s childhood home, a framed photo of Karen and Jake, smiling the same smiles while standing on a dock at some lake. She knew the story behind the photo too. “ _Me and Jake stood for that photo while Gina took it, and right after she took it he picked me up and threw me in the lake. I swear, wait until Levi is a teenager, you’ll miss the times before he was big enough to throw you_ ” and she had laughed and Amy had smiled while her husband held a baby Levi in the other room and she knew she loved her family.  
  
\----

  
Amy picked at her food, and so did Karen. Roger had given up on trying to be encouraging after Amy threw another magazine at him and Karen glared at him. Amy tried to study Karen and Roger more closely now- she’d never really understood their dynamic- but it was interrupted by approaching footsteps.  
  
A new doctor was approaching the room, until now they had only received a couple updates from nurses, mostly vague but positive bits of news that irritated her more than calmed her.  
  
“All here for Detective Peralta?” the doctor said, Amy studied her. She looked young. Red hair, short, but fairly nice looking.  
  
“That’s us” Roger finally responded when Amy’s voice didn’t come.  
  
“Who is the primary contact?” Doctor Piazza, she noticed the name now, asked.  
  
“It’s me,” Amy finally found her voice.  
  
“Would you like to step out, or would you like the whole group to hear?”  
  
Amy thought for a moment. Then remembered that they were family, Jake would want them to know. He would need the whole group to know whatever it was that was going on.  
  
“They can stay,”  
  
“Alright then,” and the doctor closed the door. Amy’s heart dropped, this felt like bad news. “We finished up surgery, he is currently on the neuro floor, we want to make sure that we can watch him closely. He suffered damage to his left leg, part of it had to be amputated,” surely this has to be the worst of it. But it’s not. “He also suffered a shot near his spine, we tried to repair it the best we could, and we repaired the functioning of his reflexes, but we won’t know about motor functioning until he wakes up and we are able to run more tests”  
  
A sigh of relief for most of the team. But something was holding Amy back from celebrating.  
  
“For now, only immediate family can visit, I will have a nurse come grab you when he is situated in his room” the doctor smiled, nodded, and left.  
  
Karen was the first to speak up, “Can he still be a detective with an amputated leg?”  
  
A pause.  
  
“As long as he can pass any testing, there’s no reason why not,” Holt assured.  
  
 _We won’t know about motor functioning until he wakes up._  
 _We won’t know about motor functioning until he wakes up._  
 _We won’t know about motor functioning until he wakes up_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking some of Charles POV in the next chapter? Or Karen and Roger? Let me know what you think...
> 
> Also I might do a fic about Karen and Jake's relationship, because I think it's cute. I have a soft spot what can I say


	4. Tubes and wires

The nurse weaved them through the hospital, and although usually Amy would be paying attention to a speaker (it was polite- she wasn’t insane) she found it difficult to hear the nurse’s warnings. 

The squad had left shortly before the nurse came to the waiting area, each of them promising to come the next morning, with offers of bringing anything she may need.

The nurse was still talking, trying to paint a picture of what Jake would look like. What kinds of things to expect. Nothing would prepare her for what he actually looked like.

A breathing tube, feeding tube, IVs and bandages on his arms from where the previous IVs had been placed. His face looked paler than usual, his eyes seemed to have large bags under them. Underneath it all, Jake was resting.

Despite his peaceful look, Amy could not get past the beeping and the smell of the hospital around her. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law agreed to wait outside of the room for a few minutes before entering to give Amy her own time with her husband. She was grateful for this, since it meant she could finally take a moment to assess her emotions.

Smoothing the blanket down over his leg Amy had to take a deep breath. She had forgotten his amputation. The doctors had been so focused on trying to fix his spine injury that they could not waste more attention on his leg than absolutely necessary. After all, a leg meant nothing if you couldn’t walk.

The amputation was just below his knee, and near his hips, ribs and neck there were plastic boards along his sides, to keep any movement from altering his back posture. Amy smoothed the edge of the blanket down and sat next to Jake on the bed.

“Hey Pineapples,” she smiled, “The kids are with Terry and Sharon, they’re doing alright. You look like you lost a fight,” she held in a sad laugh. If Jake was awake he would say something funny.

There was a knock at the door, and Karen peaked in. “How are you doing Amy?” she asked, pulling Roger into the room. When the pair laid eyes on Jake, you could see reality set in behind their eyes. Roger held his head down, laying a hand on Karen’s back, and Karen looked at her son with wide, tear-filled eyes.

\---- 

Charles had never been perfect, he would tell you as much in a heartbeat. Coming home though, he could hardly stand the feeling in his stomach. Sitting with Amy and the squad had made him feel like he would be sick. He kept expecting Amy to yell at him, to question him about what had happened, but she was stony and silent. She would cry for a few moments, then seem to disappear within herself.

Nikolaj and Genevieve were both fast asleep by the time he arrived home that night, but Charles bypassed the bedrooms to sit out on the fire escape. Brooklyn apartments were often stacked precariously high, meaning the view was one from a story book. Usually this scene would make him feel some romantic way, but today it seemed dreary.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and recounting the day. After the incident, Terry had led him down to the precinct so that they could write down everything that had happened. It wasn’t until Boyle was done that Terry finally asked, “You did nothing wrong, why do you look guilty?” leave it to cops to find a guilty look.

“I shouldn’t have moved him. Had I just kept him in place maybe-” but Terry had already cut him off.

“Charles, we still know almost nothing. And you did what everyone is supposed to do. You did exactly what I would want you to do, if it was me in that situation. Relax, wait until Jake wakes up. He’ll talk some sense into you,” And Terry left the room to file the paperwork.

Charles wanted to be hopeful, but he also knew when Jake woke up, he would want to return to work almost immediately, and if his best friend was the one who prevented him from doing so... Charles was afraid that he was going to lose his brother.

\---- 

Having been a fairly independent kid and teenager, Jake was a fairly easy child to raise. He might’ve been a joker, and maybe a bit immature at times, but he really was bright and resourceful and Karen had never worried about him much. It wasn’t until he started on his disastrous dating cycle that Karen began to worry, but Jake always kept the more worrying parts away from her.

Karen had many moments in her life that terrified her, and each of them involved her son. When he was seven and Roger left, Karen had worried about what she would need to say to Jake to make him understand, she had felt complete torture. But then Jake had smiled, pretended nothing had happened, and gotten popsicles out of the freezer for them to enjoy together.

When he was 16 and he passed his driver’s test and now she was going to let him drop her off at work so he could go to school then go to his own part-time job, she was so proud and so terrified all at the same time.

Then, shortly after that he told her he wanted to go to the police academy. Sure, she had known he wanted to be a detective since he was young, it was no secret. But later that night she was terrified and so, so angry at herself for allowing him to watch that movie when he was young.

In the coming years there was a lot of fear. Every time there was some crazy news story about an officer being injured she worried about him, during his first few years on the force she texted him several times throughout the day and called at least three times a week. She began to calm a bit later on, nothing could be much worse than when he was in prison or witness protection, but then she received a call.

Officers letting her know that Jake was in the hospital, that Karen should meet Amy there. For the first time in years she felt that same fear wash over her and take control of her body. Every bit of that was saturated in malice toward Roger – who had not been there to support her previous fears. She knew it was pointless to be mad right now, not after things had been going so well, but she needed to be mad at him so that she could stop thinking about the worst possible scenario.

Mothers were supposed to be there to take care of their sons, but she could not do anything for him. He was covered in tubes, a state she had never seen him in. He was no longer young and malleable. Now he had grey in his hair and kids of his own to take care of. He had protected her and now he had other people in his life to protect, and if he did not recover – how would be protect anyone? Including himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can tell, I don't do a whole lot of dialogue. That is something that we'll work on when the kids and Jake are a bigger part of this ;)


	5. Waking Up

General anesthesia typically takes about 45 minutes to an hour to wear off, and since the doctor wanted only one person in the room when Jake woke up that meant within 30 minutes of seeing him, Karen and Roger were saying goodbye.

Amy waited by his side, perched on the side of the bed. The doctors and nurses all seemed super nice, but that did not wear away the layer of fear that covered her. As they passed the 45-minute mark Amy began to fear that he would not wake up at all, despite knowing that it could still take even more time for the anesthesia to wear off.

A nurse popped his head into the room, checking on the situation. “Still no signs?” the nurse asked hopefully. Amy shook her head. “hmm. It is a bit funny, we have a theory that the men take a bit longer to wake up.” He smiled toward her, nodded, and left the room again.

Out of all of the things anyone could have said right now, that was the thing that had her feeling the best. She’s not really sure why, but maybe it was because no one was acting like this was abnormal, even as they encroached on the one-hour mark.

It took an hour and three minutes before signs of waking up began to show. Even then, the signs were condensed to some movement in his fingertips for the first few minutes. Then his face started to twitch, sure signs he was waking up even on a good day. Amy remembers watching his twitching from bed and finding it endearing, now she was even more excited about it than before.

The original nurse (Ryan, she found out) figured out that Amy and Jake really enjoyed making bets after talking to Amy about their lives together and their relationships. He began integrating bets into every little process inside the hospital. By the time Jake’s eyes began opening, they had nurses placing bets on how long it would take for him to be fully awake.

For once, Amy ignored the betting, although she thought the idea was sweet. It really did take her mind off how anxious she was, if only for a second. But finally, her husband was waking up.

His eyes were glassy, and he looked more tired than ever as his eyes searched ahead of him, almost frantic before landing on her.

“Hey Jake,” she smiled, placing her hand against his face. He closed his eyes and pushed his cheek into her hand. “How do you feel?”

“Mmmmm,” he hummed. He leaned his head further back against the pillow, “Can’t feel my body,” he finally mumbled.

“Yeah,” she smiled again, taking him in. She paused before continuing, unsure of how much to tell him before the doctor entered the room, then she decided full disclosure with him was the way to go, it was how she would want him to act if the situation was flipped.

“The doctors put you on a nerve blocker. Like the one I got when I had the C-section with Lorelei, but yours is higher up.” She nervously pulled at his curls. Someone must have washed his hair at some point, because it was doing what it usually did when he didn’t put product in it and forming a curly nest on the top of his head. He hated it, but she found it cute.

“Mmmmmm” she was getting a lot of humming today. He seemed like he was trying to formulate a thought. She could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He was usually so quick-witted, watching him slow down any try to really mold things over was difficult. It reminded her of when Levi asked an incredibly Toddler-esqe question, one that made absolutely zero sense, but Jake would still find a way to answer.

“What did I do?” He finally asked, his eyes weren’t staying open, he looked already like he was trying to fight against the medication to keep them open.

Amy stopped- unsure how to answer. In truth, she really did not know a whole lot about what happened. Him and Charles had gone out to find a perp, it should have been easy, but something went wrong. She decided to keep it to the facts.

“You and Charles went out, you were chasing a perp I think. You got shot twice, once in the leg and again in the back. I’m not really sure what happened, I guess you’ll have to ask Charles,” her heart was beating in her chest. She was hoping the doctor would walk in soon, she needed him here to tell Jake about his leg, his back. She couldn’t do this part alone.

“Mmmmmm” he just hummed again, which would’ve been adorable in a different situation. “Catch him?” Jake asked, looking into her eyes.

“What?” 

“Did we catch him?” 

“No, I don’t think so, they sent another group out to look for the perps.” She smiled that worried smile she gave him, typically when he was caring so much about a case that he was forgetting himself in the process. It had been awhile since then, since having kids his priorities had changed. 

He tilted his head in a slight nod, then closed his eyes again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that this was short... tomorrow I think we'll get more drama in ;) just a little bit. We'll see, love y'all, leave kudos and comments if you can :)


	6. A few days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things:  
> 1) I work in a neuro rehab, so I tried to keep this as accurate as possible. Please remember that everyone's situation is different, so this is not at all a reflection of what many patients go through. This is pretty much depicting a best-case scenario.  
> 2) I haven't been able to post lately, I've been working long hours, so please be patient if it takes me awhile to update. I haven't really gotten any time off since my patients got diagnosed with COVID :( they're beginning to do better, but it's been pretty up and down.

He didn’t keep his eyes closed for long. In true Jake fashion he began bombarding her with questions, many of which she didn’t have the answer to. Luckily, the doctor came in just a few minutes later.

“It’s good to see you awake,” she said, closing the door behind her. Amy could see Jake’s face tensing up, despite the fact that the rest of his body could not follow suit. “By now I’m sure you’ve noticed the nerve blocker on your spine, for now it should help you to limit any potentially damaging movement to your back. The bullet came dangerously close to the spine, and movement caused further damage.”

Movement? Jake couldn’t remember any movement. Then again, he couldn’t remember much.

“For now, we will keep the nerve blocker active until swelling goes down, then we will remove it and just use braces to keep movement restricted to something that is not likely to cause damage. Questions on that?” Dr. Piazza looked from both of them, neither responding.

“Then there is the condition of your leg, unfortunately the other bullet was close to an artery, and due to the spinal injury we had to assess which injury to spend more time on. Your leg is amputated below the knee, which will make it fairly easy to use prosthetics, given your spinal injury heals as necessary and you attend physical and occupational therapy,” she paused.

Amy could see his eyes dart downward, toward the blankets. For once, his face was stoic and she had trouble reading him. She knew everything must have been sinking in, he was turning it over in his mind. She was used to him making jokes out of serious situations, there wasn’t very much quiet thinking in their house.

“For the time being it is best to monitor the situation to determine when we can begin the next steps in treatment, which would be to discontinue the nerve blocker. For now, rest and as soon as you would like visitors may come during regular hours,” she smiled, nodded, then left when there were no questions.

\----- 

He realized he was holding his breath. The heart monitor was beating at an annoying rate, which was the first thing that brought him back to the real world. The world where his wife and mother of their children was perched on the side of the bed running her hands through his hair and saying soft words.

He felt overwhelmed, his heart beating quickly, but words never formed in his head. He couldn’t make out what it was that was bothering him about the situation. He thought about his kids, picking up his son and playing with him outside, bringing the kids to the beach, bouncing little Lorelei in his arms with Levi latched to his leg. Would he be able to do that? How much physical therapy did it take for you to be able to support added weight?

“Jake?” Amy asked, finally pulling him out of his thoughts. “What are you thinking?”

Her eyes were so dark but so sad, and scared he could tell. He hated when she was afraid, she was too smart and too put-together to be afraid of things. She planned things out, she did whatever she could for her friends. He wanted to move his hand to cover hers, but he couldn’t move his hands.

“Stupid hand,” he muttered, still a bit under the influence of the anesthesia. Maybe that was why he was having such trouble thinking.

She smiled down at him, grabbing his hand in hers. He could feel her warmth, and watched her squeeze his fingers but could hardly make out her touch.

“Soon I hope they take you off the nerve blocker. I remember when I had mine it was annoying, like you can only feel half of what is going on,”

He nodded, it felt calming to know she understood, at least a little bit, of what it felt like for him. Sure, she had movement of her arms, and she had approved the use of the nerve blocker, while for him it wasn’t much of a choice at all. Purely done so that he couldn’t move. Of course, he had to admit if he could move he wouldn’t be still. It was for the best.

“Wish I could move more,” he closed his eyes. “Can you turn off the light? My head hurts”

She nodded and went over to turn off the light in the room. It was still relatively bright in the room, the blinds did not do much to cover the windows.

“What do you think about visitors?” she finally asked. He could tell she had been holding something back, and he thinks that’s what it was.

In truth, he wanted to see his kids more than anything right now, but had no way to reach out to them or hold them. How could he explain that he was feeling okay if he couldn’t hold their hands or cuddle them close?

“The kids can’t see me,” he said definitively. Seeing her frown he added, “I want to see them, but what do we tell them? I can’t hold them,” he closed his eyes again, once again feeling her heat in his hand.

“Your parents picked them up about an hour ago. If you’re on the blocker for long they’re going to miss you, they’re too little to understand why they can’t see you,” her eyes were downcast.

“We could facetime them? Just until I can move my arms,” her eyes were sad, but he could tell she liked that solution.

He wanted to reach out, feeling his heart yearn for her to be closer. Just then, she leaned down and put her lips to his. Their kiss was passionate, but gentle. Like she thought he was fragile, and in all honesty, he knew that right now he was fragile.

\----- 

Jake spent three days on the blocker. He refused most visitors, but when Amy was around they would FaceTime their family and friends. It turned into a routine of FaceTiming the kids in the early afternoon and talking to others throughout the day, then Amy would leave to take care of their kids at night. She wanted them to keep their routines as much as possible, and during the day they would hang out with Karen and Roger or another babysitter.

Amy could tell that Jake would become more and more worried as the sun went down outside the windows of the hospital, knowing that she had to leave. Every morning she told him about what the kids had been up to the night before, if Lori was keeping her up despite her tendency to sleep through the night before the incident or if Levi was drawing something.

Quickly his room became a collection of art, most of it done by Levi, but a few pieces were scribbles done by Lori. 

Finally, Dr. Piazza suggested coming off the blocker. Swelling had reduced, so she felt that a brace would be enough to hold the spine in place while returning movement to his limbs.

She lifted the blocker while Amy was there so that he could have her support. He had been warned it would be painful, but he had no clue just how horrible it would feel. It was like his spine was on fire, and his leg throbbed and it felt like his foot had been run through a cheese grater despite the fact that it wasn’t even there anymore. Luckily, pain meds seemed to help dull the pain after a few minutes.

The back brace was terribly annoying. It squeezed from his hips up to his torso, and took time for him to get used to. Even when he was used to it, it itched and squeezed him and made most movement terrible. On top of that, a physical therapist decided that today would be the day that he should begin moving his legs and arms, and it was like he had to re-learn how to do it.

By the time the doctors left them alone, he was more than a little irritated and super tired from exerting himself. He seemed like he couldn’t get comfortable, but Amy helped him readjust to something significantly better than how he had been lying down.

“Thank you,” he finally said, feeling awkward. He hated feeling awkward near her, he had always liked how easy things were when they were together. He didn’t need anything to take away from their usual comfortable relationship.

“How does it feel?” she asked, concerned.

“Feels like shit, but I’m glad I can move. They were worried about that, right?” he looks into her eyes.

She knows she can’t deny anything. He can see through her if she does, so there’s no point. “Yeah, they told me when you got out of surgery that we would have to wait to see about motor movement. I’m so glad that the surgery was a success. I worried about that more than anything,” 

He reached his hand out, moving it for the first time without any prompting from the doctor or without anyone else doing all the work for him for the first time in days, and it felt amazing to grab her hand.

It felt amazing to Amy for him to reach out to her. To still want her, despite the fact that they both knew this was going to be a journey.

“So, the kids?” he said, finally breaking into a smile.


	7. Together

Having Levi and Lorelei around was super enjoyable for their grandmother. She had retired earlier that year, and had been working small odd jobs to keep herself busy, she’d never been someone to be home a lot, but none of that was enough to occupy her. She had to admit, she loved having little kids around. They were a lot of work, and kept her busy during the day until their mother came to pick them up in the evening. It helped that they had their father’s curls and sense of humor.

It was when she was preparing their dinners that she got a call from Amy, asking her to bring them to the hospital. That’s how she found herself getting both kids packed into the car, snacks in hand, heading to the hospital.

Roger was away on work so it was only her and her grandbabies. Lorelei was easier to get into the seat, but Levi was another story. He’d been having a harder time without his father, and had been begging to see him for days. Karen wanted it to be a surprise that they were going to see their father, but Levi was refusing to get into the car.

“No no no, don’t wanna go!” he yelled, trying to hit her. Levi at two had been such a happy child, Jake and Amy had said several times it looked like he was skipping his terrible two’s, but it looked like they were starting to come out.

Finally, when she was about to give up, Lorelei started whimpering, which made Levi turn to her to comfort her. He immediately climbed into the car, letting his grandmother buckle his seat while he soothed Lori with a toy.

Sighing, Karen pulled the car onto the road.

\----- 

Amy met them in the lobby of the hospital, quick to grab a whining Lori and hold her to her chest while walking them up to the room. The moment Levi realized where he was (“hos-it-tal” as he called it) he was ecstatic, ready to see his daddy. 

They entered the room to Jake sitting up in the bed, propped against pillows. Immediately, Levi ran up to him.

“Daddy!” he squealed, and Amy was glad she had warned him before entering the room that his daddy would be sore, because once Levi reached the bed he looked back to his mom for permission. She placed Lori on the bed, then reached down to place Levi next to her.

Karen stayed for a while, chatting and telling the parents what the kids had been up to. She had forgotten in her haste to get to the hospital to bring the artwork Levi had made for his father, but promised to bring it another time. She kissed and hugged her family goodbye, then left them to spend private time together.

Jake could tell his mother missed him, and in all honesty it was odd not to see her. He knew she wanted to be a part of his recovery, and he had the thought to ask Amy to grab his phone so he could ask his mother to visit, perhaps during lunch sometime, when she brought it up.

“I could always drop them off at the daycare sometime, so your mom could drop by during the day,” she suggested, looking down at Levi, pulling his curls back. Levi’s face lit up.

“I get to go play? Please please please mommy!” he begged, smiling up to her, and she knew now that she mentioned it she would have to let him go to daycare again soon.

“How about tomorrow?” Jake suggested, while playing with Lori’s hand. The baby giggled, propped up against his side.

“Daddy, what’s this?” Levi asked, poking at the brace against Jake’s side.

“It’s to help buddy. It’s called a brace,” While Jake explained, Amy finally felt like she could relax. She took a few photos, saving it to an album on her phone. She named the album “Jake’s recovery”.

While she did that, she didn’t notice Levi climbing down the bed, noticing that there was only one lump in the blanket from Jake’s feet. Before she could stop him or divert his attention, Levi pointed to the spot where Jake’s lower leg used to be.

Levi seemed to freeze. Confused. Jake and Amy shared a confused glance, wondering what Levi could possibly be thinking. Sure, New York was a weird place. But she didn’t think that he had ever noticed anyone missing an appendage.

Watching little kids think was always interesting, wondering what they were possibly thinking.

“Daddy?” he finally asked.

“What’s up, buddy?”

“When’s it gonna grow back?” Levi cocked his head to the side, eyes wide and questioning.

Amy could hardly keep herself from laughing, and could hear the smile in Jake’s voice as he answered, “that would be really cool, but I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon,”

Levi seemed to mull it over then said, “Does that mean you get a peg leg?”

“Maybe buddy, we’re gonna have to wait and see,” Jake smiled. 

Truthfully, Amy knows that he hadn’t been super keen on losing a limb. Sure, Jake was all about scars and as long as it didn’t kill him he saw injuries as pretty cool (badass was his usual response to a new scar). But staying in bed brought him a new reality and knowing that his recovery was going to be long was daunting. Maybe though, they could find some happiness with the kids while they were at it.

\---- 

They stayed in the room for a couple hours, visiting and chatting. Lori had fallen asleep shortly before they got ready to leave, so Amy had made her a makeshift babynest on the bed next to Jake while Levi stayed up, lying down next to his daddy until the three of them were all pretty much asleep. Levi was the last awake.

“Why’s daddy asleep? It’s still day!” He asked his mom, frustrated.

“Still daytime you mean, baby. And daddy had a long day,” do you tell your kids about painkillers and how drugs worked? Probably not at this age. “Let him rest for a bit, then we’ll wake him up,”

This was enough for Levi, who eventually also drifted to sleep, proving Amy with the cutest new recovery photo, which she added to the album on her phone, as well as setting it as her wallpaper and sending it to the Santiago and Peralta family group chats (and the 9-9, she wasn’t going to leave them out of the cuteness).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will have more to do with physical therapies and getting ready to go home!


End file.
